Sleigh Drive

Biddle uses the dramatic quality of the scratch technique to illustrate a poignant moment in the violent, chaotic poem “The Twelve” by the Russian poet Alexander Blok written shortly after the October 1917 Revolution against the Czarist government. The protagonists of the poem are twelve Red Guards who encounter various symbolic figures during one stormy night. This image illustrates the part in the poem where a soldier and his prostitute lover pass the Guards on the road. By highlighting only the parts of the image we absolutely need in order to read it, Biddle shows us the dark of night and the lashing snow of the blizzard.